The Case Of The First Waco Horror - 1206 Words

Farming was the way of life for a majority of Texans up until the Great Depression. Life was simple and cyclical—planting, waiting, harvesting, and selling. This cycle, broken only by racial violence, was all Texans knew. However, as Texas grew increasingly connected to the modern world, through technology, a global economy, and an expanding role for the United States Federal government, that simple life began to change, and not necessarily for the better. All three books show this shift and the effect on the life of everyday Texans. In the case of The First Waco Horror, increasing connectivity to the United States and even the world helped to begin to change the view of Lynching and the anti-lynching movement gained†¦show more content†¦Bernstein’s book focuses on how connectivity helped to end lynching, as well as how it increased lynching. The NAACP used the lynching of Jesse Washington to spread awareness of the atrocities committed in the South and the n eed to stop them. As Bernstein points out, the Jesse Washington lynching, â€Å"was just the barest beginning of a battle that would last for many years† (Bernstein 174). News of the Jesse Washington lynching spread around the United States, and even made its way to a British Newspaper (Bernstein 130). The national and international news coverage began the battle to increase public awareness, and would eventually lead the dying out of lynchings done by huge crowds. Lynching, however, is an enigma because increasing connectivity led to more awareness of the issue, but it also increased lynching. As population shifted and the U.S. became more interconnected, for example, during WWI, a rise in the need for Anglos to control their ever-changing environment led to a resurgence of the KKK in the 1920s. Lynching increased as a method of social control and while it was more socially inappropriate, the number of lynchings did not decrease significantly until after WWII. Therefore, in the case of racial violence, increased connectivity was a double-edged sword. Sitton and Utley’s book is a compilation of interviews from small landowners in Texas, whose existence was a combination of subsistence farming and production of